OK, so I bought a cheap ($2) charger for my 18650’s a while back. Been using it for months
I just read this… BU-409: Charging Lithium-ion - Battery University
So checked my charger and according to my DMM with the battery fully charged, the voltage reading is 4.27V
Should I throw it away? The batteries are Trustfire Flames: Test of TrustFire TF18650 3000mAh (Flame)
So far they seem to be doing fine
Put it outdoors on a fireproof surface, in a metal box.
Once you’ve found a place that takes li-ions for recycling,
put it in salt water overnight, then recycle it.
If you like to gamble, the odds are you won’t get hurt.
If you like to gamble but not on blind odds, and not with your family, store it outdoors in a fireproof location, not indoors, ever.
If it vents, do not inhale.
This is so offensive. I know now I made a bad decision getting this charger for my batteries, but perhaps you could have recommended I give it to my mother in law or something XD
Thanks Hank, I’ll look for a replacement
Some random $2 charger + trustfire (or _any_fire) is very dangerous. Pretty much as bad as you can get.
Cheap junk chargers are made extremely poorly, straight up dangerous circuit design, cheapest possible components. Just absolute disregard for safety or life. Any day the charger may just decide to overcharge enough to go up in flames.
And the problem with trustfire or any other *fire batteries is that most are counterfeits. Just don’t buy *fire batteries. Go for Evva or keeppower protected batteries. Those are the two cheapest brands that use quality li-ion cells and add quality seiko protection circuits to them.
There are things that should be thrown away due to future safety concerns
Presuming the DMM is accurate, should the cell protection kick in before reaching 4.27v if it is working?
Ha. Some xxxfire batteries have no protection despite the fact that their wrapper says it’s protected. Magical protection wrappers. 
Problem is that you don’t know if what you bought is the same thing that is described in that review.
Shrinkwrap is for sale really cheap. It’s put on all sorts of crap.
Manafont is out of business, I think. At least their website has come up blank for me, for months.
You could weigh and measure the cells you have and compare them to those that were reviewed there.
(Wear eye protection, do it outdoors …)
You can feel the shrinkwrap for the little bump along the length that shows the existence of a protection strip, though you won’t know it’s the same protection reviewed.
The review says the reviewed cells had protection that tripped at 7.4 amps — I don’t know much about that. But I don’t see how a cheap charger would trip them no matter how many volts it’s pushed into the cell.
Li-ion only have 2 states:
-Not dangerous
-DANGEROUS
The line between the two is very thin, you will never know it’s going bad until it is bad. Most li-ion related accident usually starts with “it was doing fine and then suddenly…”
This is why we’re being so persuasive about this, you might think it’s rude but we do this for your good.
Some TF cells reviewed by HKJ had a cutoff at 4.2v, I wasn’t sure if that was normal.
Coincidently I came across this video on a vaping site yesterday whilst trying to learn more about protected cells. It’s probably been posted many times and is an extreme example, but the “protection circuit” is what caught my eye.
Funny to see controlled and ultrafire in one sentence.lol
First, not most important, but an important point…IF your DMV is +accurate+being overcharged 0.07v is not a disaster waiting to happen. Some people get upset if their charger doesn’t charge fully to 4.2v, in spite of the fact that it has to overcharge a bit to settle back to that level.
That said it’s a cheap charger and may be batteries of dubious quality, which can be a problem waiting to happen. Some Trustfires……may….be OK. Frankly you don’t have the ability to figure that out. Best to start over with some decent batteries and a good charger and build up your knowledge base.
Magical, just like the 8000 mAh capacity claims on some 18650s…
Guys, no offense taken, of course not. All the advise is MUCH appreciated.
I’m going to get on google ASAP and do what I should’ve done from the get go: learn how to check my batteries, what to look for in a charger, etc…
These Trustfire Flame were indeed bought from Manafont shudders
Also I ordered new batteries from Gearbest:
Well, that was before posting this, so hope I didn’t screw up again. If I have to throw those away too, I won’t hesitate.
Buy li-ions from a reliable source that takes proper and consistent precautions for shipping.
Getting fake cells is one risk. Another risk is getting cells damaged during shipping. There is also the safety concern for everyone involved in the mail/shipping process.
I do not consider the packaging from either GB or BG good or consistent enough.
Up to now Fasttech and MTN have not let me down for cells. Safe packaging, perfect cells…every time.
Yeah, I just read that other thread where people complained about the packaging from GB, and batteries arriving with dents and stuff. SMH
A functional rule of thumb to start. is to not buy it unless HJK has reviewed it and given it a stamp of approval.
That won’t help with the shopping part, but you’ll get lots of suggestions here. Basic equation is reliability+customer service vs. cheap/slow/occasionally shoddy. In that value sort you need to make your own decisions.
Is that a BABY COUGHING in the background at 0:59?
This really looks like a great piece of advice. Big props to HJK for his great work reviewing all that stuff